it can be said that disability is an opened Club anyone can join at any time not by choice but by circumstan assuming you happen to join now how would you want to be treated I'm sure many of you are thinking God forbid God forbid yes indeed God forbid because according to the UN 2011 World Report on disability in developing countries about 80% to 90% of persons living with disabilities of working age are unemployed whereas in the industrialized countries the figure is between 50% and 70% so you see now if God does not forbid and you
join this club perhaps you will be unemployed and you only add to the number yes everyone is struggling for employment or for a job but what is the story of the person who has some form of disability when I was around 4 years old I suffered from misles and that resulted in my blindness and um after going to a number of hospitals and prayers a doctor finally referred us to School for the Blind Eon and that is where I learned how to read and write then then I had no prior knowledge of School for the
Blind but what I had in mind was that because I could see a little I was going to be allowed to get close to the Blackboard or prints will be large enough for me um to be uh will be large enough for me to read little did I know that these fingers of mine were going to be my eyes for the rest of my life you know every child dreams of what he or she wants to be when he or she grows up so I'm sure many of you may recall a simple poem that um
uh we used to recite I don't know whether it's a poem or it's a song that we used to recite that when I grow I shall be a carpenter a carpenter a carpenter a carpenter I shall be I'm sure I've reminded some of you unless you didn't go to Primary School you see whilst the nondisabled children are free to say whatever they want to be when they grow up if you're a visually impaired person for instance where your lips are saying when I grow I shall be a pilot your mind will be asking you have
you heard a blind man as a pilot before why do you want to kill yourself and others so from the very beginning the person who is disabled is even Limited in his or her dreams as to the kind of um job he or she can do or the kind of career choice so if you are a hearing impaired person for instance you're not dreaming of becoming a broadcaster if you are visually impaired perhaps you not dreaming of becoming a medical doctor especially in Ghana or if you are a physically challenged neither you dreaming of becoming
a driver or something like that that is why um in spite of my interest in newscasting or or journalism I didn't go to any journalism school after senior secondary school at okap but I went straight to the University of Cape Coast to do um Bachelor of Education Arts but what I did was that I never abandoned my dream of becoming a newscaster when I got to the University of Cape Coast there were two campus um stations at the time and after failing to secure a position at the first one I I got lucky and um
book an appointment with a studio manager of the other radio station which is um radio Val and and radio vle was located on the last floor of a four-story building and you know here uh we most our buildings do not even have left um how much more um a hall in the University no LIF but I was at the man's office before he came and when he saw me at the office the question he asked me was are you the one looking for me I said yes sir he said if I knew you were the
one I would have asked you to wait for me out downstairs my dear friends ladies and gentlemen this is a man who thinks that he does not want to bother a blind man by letting him climb a flight of staircase versus a blind man who is determined to work on a radio station located on the last floor of a four-story building and this is the story of the disabled this is a story many persons with disabilities can identify themselves with because most of the times employers conclude on what the disabled person can do far before
he or she tells the employer what he can do so instead of asking you uh whether you can use the computer uh they will tell you that well we do not have a special computer for you so we don't think um we'll be able to employ you or um looking at the structure of our building we do not think that um you'll be able to move around here or you can't report at the right time so we are sorry we can't employ you and this is where I heal my current employer Mr enest botin because
when I approached Global media Alliance to do my national service he said we as a company give equal opportunities to everyone so we want you to come and do aptitude test can you do it I said yes sir he said if you are asked to report at 8 will you be able to come I said yes sir well now tell us what you can do and I say this is what I can do hello good afternoon and warmly welcome welc to week in Focus my name is Paul anak coming up in this hour national health
insurance capitation reaches three more regions in an attempt by the authority to roll it out Nationwide n ADF makes a comeback to contest npp's presidential election in business domestic Airline sector records 14% increase in passenger numbers in 2013 and in international news Pro Russian troops take over Ukrainian Naval headquarters in Crimea and now the details of their stories the University of Ghana on Monday extended the time limit given to commercial drivers who ply the campus from 15 to 20 minutes however the new time frame has not allate the concerns of drivers etvs debor SMY Lum
report after a turbulent piloting of the capitation program in the Ashante region the national health insurance Authority has announced the extension of the project Nationwide but ahead of the implementation ETV news examines the visibility of the much criticized exercise which has been Frau with lots of setbacks in sports soccer fans on the streets of arra have expressed their opinion about the approved $9.8 million budget for the black stars ahead of the upcoming World Cup in Brazil very much for joining me my name is Paul an Mar enjoy the rest of your weekend well all right
thank you very much but I think that if opportunities are given to others um some could even do better than this but I think that um if unemployment among persons with disabilities will reduce drastically there are certain fundamental issues that need to be tackled first first of all I think there should be massive awareness creation and sensitization of disability issues to correct certain wrong perceptions people have concerning persons with disabilities in our part of the world Africa and for that matter Ghana many even see disability as a curse or even the work of the devil
so it was not surprising that um apart from the number of hospitals my parents took me we also attended a number of prayers as well I remember during one of those prayers the um Pastor was saying that when the Holy Spirit comes on you you are going to fall down so do not worry about the new clothes that you are wearing then before he could even finish the crowd moved back and pushed me down so I tried getting up and my loving mother Juliana thinking it was the Holy Spirit which had come on Me Gently
held me down but I knew it was someone who had pushed me down you see I'm saying this because I think it's about time we knew that disability is not so different from the daily illness we acquire except that this is permanent there is therefore the need for us to get rid of the numerous weird stories associated with the condition so that if you have an employer who thinks that meeting a disabled person first thing in the morning is a sign of bad luck there's no way such an employer will employ a person with disability
also I think that um parents should invest in the education uh parents of disabled children should investing the education and uh training of their disabled um children because once again in our part of the world uh many disabled um parents are not well to do and that is why even many are um disabled in any way because sometimes you require just a little to take care of the child but because of where the person was born and lack of certain facility the person live with a disability but even at a very difficult time when a
doctor has referred me and my brother Peter anodia who is also visually impaired to School for the Blind that was when my Father Anthony and Maria the poor Security man at the time made a promise a promise he and my mother kept faith F he said do not worry because even if it's left with only one Shir of mine I'm going to sell it for you to go to school so if parents of disabled children will be so passionate of giving their disabled children the best education and the necessary training required for the job market
I do not think that um un employment will be as high as it is now among persons with disabilities another thing that is dear to my heart is the availability of um assistive devices in the developed um countries disabled persons are able to live independent lives and also work efficiently due to technology so why can't um business men and women in Africa and in Ghana in particular uh go into the manufacturing and production of assisted uh devices or even the development of disabled friendly softwares to assist persons with disabilities if they do they will not
only help persons with disabilities live independent lives and work efficiently they would also be making money for themselves and for this nation initially when uh my scripts are ready for me to go on air somebody had to sit with me and read everything for me to Braille again before I'm able to go and read but the executive chairman of global media Alliance Mr Edward baten thanks to him he had to search and got me a machine that now when my scripts are ready they only put it in a on a flash drive and I'm able
to go and read and when it is taken from the machine anybody else like you who can also see can also read it but when I slot it in the machine it just comes in Braille like that so even if I have few minutes to go on air and it's given me I'll be able to um go and present so if assistive devices are available and cheaper to get I'm sure that it will enhance the efficiency of persons with disabilities I'm therefore asking African business men and women and those in Ghana in particular to develop
disabled friendly softwares and also uh produce um assessive devices to help persons with disabilities live independent lives and work efficiently at this point I would like to encourage my colleague persons with disabilities to feel free to dream whatever dreams or aspirations you have just believe that you will be able to accomplish them I believe that um on this F there's no one absolutely no one who is useless therefore turn the lost your loss of vision uh limbs or lack of hearing into advantages or instead of disadvantages and now to employers I say that there are
so many many unique talents that persons with disabilities have if employers will recognize this and employ persons with disabilities they would and enough talents they never dreamed of persons with disabilities wants to do something for themselves their communities and their Nation all they need is the chance for them to be able to do so so employ them and don't just employ them give them specific TXS and see whether they will not accomplish them there is this Chinese proverb that I'm sure many of you may be familiar with that says give a man a fish and
you feed him for a day teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime so please at least remember this that anytime any person with disability approaches you for a job just remember that he or she wants you to teach him or her to fish and not to give give him or her fish would you please remember yes okay thank you very much
